Wildfire season began in March and has officially ended as of Nov. 1, 2018.
This year there were 107 wildfires in the Fort McMurray Forested Area, up from 93 last year, with a total area burned of about 3,295 hectares.
Lynn Daina, wildfire information officer with Alberta Forestry told MyMcMurray how humans most likely caused 25 of the fires.
“Typically abandoned camp fires, if as fire is not cool to the touch, it could reignite if the conditions are right,” said Dayna. “The other way typical way is Off Highway Vehicles, out in the dry grasses, it’ll pickup and collect in the hot spots of the vehicle, then they’ll drop off and ignite on the dry grass.”
Daina said the other 82 wildfires were caused by lighting.
“We had a sweep go through in June that saw hundreds of lightning strikes and we had dozens of starts within a two day period,” said Dayna.
Dayna reminds people to soak and stir your campfires and to clean any grass or debris from your OHV’s.
